We’ve challenged you to limericks, couplets and haiku after haiku after haiku. So when Hayward poet G.W. Enos suggested we try a new 5-line form for our “summer pleasures poetry contest,” we leapt at the chance — even if we couldn’t pronounce “cinquain.”

And you leapt too, with odes to s’mores, campfires, board games and hot summer nights. You waxed poetic about Yosemite, Highway 101 and even gas station restrooms in a series of whimsical, lovely and occasionally funny five-line poems that began with a single word announcing the theme, followed by a two-word description, then three words, four, and a final, fantastic word to sum up.

A few of you overachievers took the cinquain form and gave it a new twist completely. Yes, we’re talking about you, D. Ellen and Michael Rothman — whose many submissions included a gem told almost entirely in abbreviations. Dave Osborn took the art form to new, dizzying heights by matching the syllable count to the words in a cinquain-plex. His quartet of four-syllable words was so impressive, we had to, ahem, look one up. Incalescent, in case you wondered, is an adjective meaning “growing hotter or more ardent.”

Read on for our favorite cinquains — our passion for them is incalescent — then go online for more.

— Jackie Burrell

Neighborhood

Kids playing

Twilight games until

Streetlights glow mothers call

Bedtime.

— Martha Meltzer, Pleasanton

Heatwave

Feet aflame

On wooden boardwalk

Brave it for corndog

Yummy!

— Vicki Morgan, San Pablo

Gardening:

Earth, water,

Dig, sweat, pray.

Then, edible bounty — organic,

Naturally.

— Alice Kight, Pleasanton

Splash

Swimming pool

Sunning and soaking

Sipping sweet ice tea

Sublime

— Alan Thompson, Walnut Creek

Convertible.

Top down.

Engine running smoothly.

Wind in your hair.

Cruisin’

— Larry Doweidt, Antioch

Napping

Doves coo

Summer’s still breath

Lying on soft sofa

Paused

— Debaney Lefort, Livermore

Road-trip

Sticky seats

Hot straight vistas

Gas station cement bathroom

Relief

— Carol Grace, Pleasanton

Campfire.

Warm nights

Under starry skies,

Singing old, familiar songs.

Togetherness.

— Louise M. Mangini, Walnut Creek

Nectarines,

Mouthwatering melons,

Bursting blackberry baskets,

Succulent striped zebra zucchinis,

Bountiful.

— Michael Rothman and D. Ellen, Oakland

Stones

Round, smooth

Spinning and skipping

On sun sparkled river

Exhilarating.

— Yvette Ratliff, Brentwood

Fishing:

Early July

Pardon my backcast.

Inconvenient trout — angler management!

Frustrating

— Shirley Sprague, Concord

Summer

Picnic woes

Bees chasing Mom

Mom running into tent

Memories.

— S.R. Miller, Hayward

Vacation.

No school,

Nor summer school.

Long days. Longer nights.

Endless.

— Cynthia Bass, Danville

Hiking

Vertical trails

Luscious rivers, waterfalls

Majestic, gray rock walls —

Yosemite

— Bruce Roberts, Hayward

Sun.

Warming myself.

Enjoying recumbent sensations,

Solitary somnolency. Vegetative, incalescent,

Lackadaisical.

— Dave Osburn, Pinole

August:

A C

B B Q

D E E T

S W E A T

— Michael Rothman and D. Ellen, Oakland

Got a Yen to Haiku?

OK, folks, the dog days of summer are upon us. It”s hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk. And while we realize this is just a drop in the bucket and a long row to hoe, we”re asking for haiku inspired by clichés. Send your haiku “” three lines in a 5-7-5 syllable pattern “” to jburrell@bayareanewsgroup.com by noon Aug. 30.

Jackie Burrell is the editor and senior writer for the Mercury News and East Bay Times' Eat Drink Play section, which explores the West Coast's food, wine, cocktail and travel scene each week. An award-winning writer, Burrell joined the Bay Area News Group staff in 2000.

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